The book by Trump’s former National Security Advisor John Bolton will not go on sale until June 23, but the material in it is already in the hands of the press.
Let’s not make John Bolton a hero. He looks good only by comparison to his former boss.
He long has wanted to go to war with Iran and has been a hawk in general. If he was genuinely concerned about the country’s situation, he could have testified, which he refused to do. He is as despicable as Trump.
There are so many issues embedded in this one HCR post. I admire the way you can distill information into such a concise package! The insane claim that all conversations with a president are "highly classified" is proof that Trump is in a panic about this book--probably because when they tried to bury it in January no one actually bothered to read it, least of all H/T.TrumpDoesn'tRead. As a result they have no idea what the book actually contains. I have no confidence in the motives of Bolton, who is a warmongering, mendacious, self-aggrandizer whose career has been spent boosting himself by denigrating others. Even if what he writes are lists of provably impeachable offenses, the fact that he refused to testify without tying Congress up in knots for months with subpoena challenges suggests that he is not acting in good faith. Perhaps what he wanted was for his testimony and the book to be produced simultaneously--which would make the timing right in terms of court challenges to congressional subpoenas being completed by around this time had they been introduced in November/December. He would certainly have made more money that way.
This is the single best concise definition of Bolton I have ever read. :) And yes, I think he expected to be begged for his testimony, and then when the House declined, he hoped the Senate would demand it. And then THEY declined, and he was sort of twisting in the wind.
I posted this on a WaPo article comment page but it is germane to HCR’s description of “The” book that I think it bears posting here:
And yet, with all this, hundreds, if not thousands, of his flock are in Tulsa waiting in line, in tents, three days before the event, for the opportunity to view the Chosen One and, as a bonus, to potentially contract COVID-19.
The fact that he has demanded this gathering and his flock is going to gather illustrates the disregard he has for the citizens of the USA. Further, his flock feels no responsibility in taking part in a super-spreader event that will affect thousands (remember that it is estimated that R0>2) of innocents with COVID-19.
This adulation and his flock’s irresponsibility to other Citizens is, IMHO, insane.
I completely agree with you. tRUMP will be DIRECTLY responsible for any deaths of American citizens from COVID as a result of this gathering to feed his enormous ego.
I am unable to even find words that adequately express the depth of my anger and disgust about this.
I think the real elephant in the room is John Bolton - a man who purports himself a patriot, when in fact he sold out the country for a book deal. He knew exactly what he was doing when he offered to testify only under subpoena. Would he have made a real difference? Probably not, but I don't know how he sleeps at night.
The real problem there is that he probably has no problem at all with sleeping at night. Where does that put his "values" on the human register. Is he so different from the man he's criticizing?
Fun times finally. If the pile on continues, and the polls move even lower for the prez, I'm thinking he'll throw in the towel to avoid having to be known in history as a loser, losing the election. Fingers crossed. Toes, too.
And if he does you get 3 months of Pence! Is that going to be better? He'll have time to pardon Trump for federal crimes and destroy as much as possible of the evidence that could gut the whole Republican Party for a long time to come! In the meantime, Trump will have been squirrelled away on the golf course in some sunny clime without an extradition treaty.
I have said all along that Trump would resign. It's his MO. Drive something into the ground, then declare victory and walk away, leaving others to clean up the mess.
All things being equal, I would agree. But they are not. I've been a New Yorker for a long time and I feel confident in saying that SDNY is biding it's time and will move on indictments as soon as all this political nonsense is out of the way. And their institutional memory rivals that of a butthurt woman. I think he knows that and he is pretty terrified of what happens when he is not shielded by the office. He doesn't want to be president, he's been over that for three years, but he's desperate for re election because he can't control what comes next. And that may well involve those loathsome kids. And that fueled up plane idling on the tarmac pointed towards Moscow ain't looking so fine either cause Vlad has been bored with this schmuck from the beginning, and we all know where boring Vlad gets you.
Your view is mine, although when I broach it with others they scoff. His egg-shell ego can't withstand the increasing pressure and crumbling support stemming from all the epic failures. His declining mental and physical health is the perfect excuse to bow out and avoid the crushing psychological blow of a landslide defeat in November.
Hope springs eternal every time I hear you say this! Is it possible that if he resigns, leaving Pence in charge, that he could leave office with a full pardon?
A narcissist with the power America once wielded is a terrifying thing indeed; my hope is that we can put in place guardrails against any true narcissist from rising this high again. The problem is the ruling class is by and large the narcissist class.
It seems to me that most politicians almost by definition have to have at least a streak of narcissism. Few people are so purely altruistic that they are willing to subject themselves and their families and loved ones to the often grueling scrutiny and attacks that running for office can entail. The trick, then, is to identify which have "healthy" levels of narcissism, balanced by a true desire to do the most good for the most people. That can be a potent combination. It's difficult enough for people with stable (almost hate to use that word anymore), balanced, healthy egos to maintain their moral footing in the face of the blatant flattery and fawning from those who are seeking favors, or to refrain from responding to the inevitable attacks with retaliation.
It would be wonderful if voters were interested in actually being well informed and attuned to the true character and mental stability of those running for office. However, as we have see, such is far too often not the case.
Thanks for making it clear that while Bolton feels it’s necessary to criticize the House Democrats on their handling of impeachment, he did everything he could to impede their success. As much as I rub my hands with glee over the information Bolton is releasing, at bottom this book is self-serving and will probably have little effect on the 2020 election.
I agree that Bolton is no prize. But not sure about the effect on 2020, since China is shaping up to be a huge issue on that front. It's actually been weird to watch it start to appear and gain momentum as a key aspect of the election when it seems to me, anyway, that most Americans are really not thinking about China as the most burning issue in front of us.
I'm sorry, but these two absolutely deserve each other and if Bolton's dragging Trump down into a mud fight that makes them both look like what they are, I am good with that.
I agree, Betsy! The daily breech of ethics, the constant barrage of lies, the characterless bullying and name calling...we are so inundated with the offenses of this man that we ALMOST don’t realize what an insidious person he is and how complicit the Senate is in covering their eyes and plugging their noses!
Thanx for the heads-up confirming the corruption in this regime occupying the White House. (And the complicit “do nothing” Repugnant Senate). I hope the book withstands the illegal challenges and goes public. As for Bolton, he was part of the corruption so who cares if he has personal illegal grief from former toadies with whom he colluded.
I don't really see how they stop it at this point, when advance copies are already in the hands of media. It's just odd that they left it until this late. Even a week earlier and they could have stopped it from going out, but now? I just don't see it.
IS that a foul-up on their part, do you think, or an opportunity they took for another big media fracas to distract people from <gestures at everything>?
I thought the same thing. It's like in Star Wars when Leia says, "They LET US go. It's the only explanation for the ease of our escape." Trump has always maintained that there's no such thing as bad publicity, and there have been damning books come out before with no consequences to his approval rating.
I'm with you, Heather. If a court stops it from going forward, SCOTUS would have to rely on New York Times Co. v. United States, in the Pentagon Papers case. As a former journalist, I can't see a stronger precedent than this. It would really turn the world upside down if SCOTUS overruled this precedent.
TODAY'S HISTORY LESSON: THE BLACK LAWN JOCKEY (footman).
These days people don't know the real meaning behind these statues, so they vandalize them, and think of them as racist, etc. The history of the black 'footman' with a lantern is the exact opposite. Its meaning signified that the home was a stop on the Underground Railroad. These were largely a northern thing, and weren't commonly found in the South until after WWII when northerners moved there and brought this custom with them. The clothing of the statue was also coded. A striped jockey's shirt meant that this was a place to swap horses, while a footman in a tailed coat meant overnight lodging and/or food, and a blue sailor's waist coat meant the homeowner could take you to a port and get you on a ship to Canada. Later, these came back into popularity after WWII, and they were again coded. Mostly to show that the white homeowners supported early civil rights efforts, and were NOT Klan members, etc. These statues are something we should be proud of because they led a lot of people to their freedom and they also represent the bravery and support of the homeowner's that risked their homes, themselves and their families for the struggle of freedom and equality.
Wow--I had no idea of this was the history of the lawn jockey! They were common enough when I was growing up but I was taught that they are a racist trope. A very dear--and tragically recently departed--former colleague and friend Pellom McDaniels, who was an historian of African American culture, wrote a book that got published a few years ago on the most famous jockey of the 19th century: The Prince of Jockeys: The Life of Isaac Burns Murphy. His fame was such that I assumed after hearing about Pellom's research over the years that he was the model for the lawn jockey.
Mary Trump's damning book is next. According to the Daily Beast, Trump is gearing up for a legal fight, getting his attorneys involved and telling people close to him that Mary Trump had signed a non-disclosure agreement years ago. That could buy him time before the election, if if it's a legal battle he can't wint. Given the extent to which NDAs are legal documents and enforceable should make them a relevant "thing to know," document and have a thorough accounting of, about any candidate running for POTUS in the future, and as part of national clearance for WH administration.
This will be interesting because she is a private citizen and he represents the government... precisely the situation the First Amendment was designed to address. But I doubt she will say much we don't already know. Bolton's book was key because of his stature in the administration and his detailed contemporaneous notes.
It's terrible how one gets so "blazé" about sensational revelations about Trump. Overkill no...but it would be so good to see something done about it. The real problem here is McConnell and his troop of "baby elephants" who are so scared, or reliant upon, their rogue bull that they are frozen solid. Fortunately their are cracks appearing in the iceberg. Isn't time that the Republican Party took its future in its own hands and spilt into 2 seperate parties? Right and extreme rightwing? If they did could the democrats follow?
What??!! Trump was happy to sell out a million Uighurs for his own personal gain - agreeing that sending them to prison camps was a right and proper action in exchange for some agricultural products. A million people. Let's think about that. And Bolton (and presumably others) did nothing. Let's think about that too.
I had to cut a graf I wrote about this last night. I think it shows a mind that does not believe that all people are equal, or that all people have value. And isn't the concentration of people deemed "lesser" precisely what his administration did on our southern border? It was certainly possible to change our immigration policies without that particular solution, but that's the way they went.
Certainly trump would casually sell out a million people for his personal gain - after all, for months, he has been selling out the entire 330 million Americans to the coronavirus for the sake of his reelection. With the Uighurs, though, it is worse than that. Given trump's repeated attacks on Muslims, there is reason to believe he actually likes the idea of locking them all up.
I thought I'd lost my ability to be shocked by Trump and his enablers, but I was wrong. This truly shocked me. But you are right. Of course he did that. I'm crying for our country and our global community.
Many of us are of the same low opinion of Bolton. He had his chance to do something and he was a coward. But add to this the true patriots such as Lt. Colonel Vindman, Dr. Fiona Hill and Marie Yovanovitch who risked their careers and their lives (death threats have been made) and the true depth of Bolton’s cowardice shows through.
Yes, Annette! Vindman, Hill and Yovnovitch are inspiring human beings! I hope we have not seen the last of them - the country is a better place for their service.
Bolton seems to be more like Trump than he will admit: he wants this to be about himself, or he would have done his patriotic duty and testified before a deliberative body who wanted to DO something about Trump. He was clearly upset about what Trump has done, but apparently Bolton doesn't view that as treason. He wants to be President himself, perhaps.
I believe there's a possibility, just a chance, that Bolton's book could help his re-election. His quid-pro-quo with President Xi -- the "Art of the Deal" -- can be spun to show his base, especially farmers, that he was negotiating for them!
I wondered the same. But I'm guessing that they are so underwater, it's too late for this to change many minds. And then you add in Covid... which is hitting so hard right now in red states....
Let’s not make John Bolton a hero. He looks good only by comparison to his former boss.
He long has wanted to go to war with Iran and has been a hawk in general. If he was genuinely concerned about the country’s situation, he could have testified, which he refused to do. He is as despicable as Trump.
Marcy Meldahl, you are correct! John Bolton is no hero:(
Amen.
There are so many issues embedded in this one HCR post. I admire the way you can distill information into such a concise package! The insane claim that all conversations with a president are "highly classified" is proof that Trump is in a panic about this book--probably because when they tried to bury it in January no one actually bothered to read it, least of all H/T.TrumpDoesn'tRead. As a result they have no idea what the book actually contains. I have no confidence in the motives of Bolton, who is a warmongering, mendacious, self-aggrandizer whose career has been spent boosting himself by denigrating others. Even if what he writes are lists of provably impeachable offenses, the fact that he refused to testify without tying Congress up in knots for months with subpoena challenges suggests that he is not acting in good faith. Perhaps what he wanted was for his testimony and the book to be produced simultaneously--which would make the timing right in terms of court challenges to congressional subpoenas being completed by around this time had they been introduced in November/December. He would certainly have made more money that way.
This is the single best concise definition of Bolton I have ever read. :) And yes, I think he expected to be begged for his testimony, and then when the House declined, he hoped the Senate would demand it. And then THEY declined, and he was sort of twisting in the wind.
Exactly what George Conway says in a piece in today’s Washington Post!
I posted this on a WaPo article comment page but it is germane to HCR’s description of “The” book that I think it bears posting here:
And yet, with all this, hundreds, if not thousands, of his flock are in Tulsa waiting in line, in tents, three days before the event, for the opportunity to view the Chosen One and, as a bonus, to potentially contract COVID-19.
The fact that he has demanded this gathering and his flock is going to gather illustrates the disregard he has for the citizens of the USA. Further, his flock feels no responsibility in taking part in a super-spreader event that will affect thousands (remember that it is estimated that R0>2) of innocents with COVID-19.
This adulation and his flock’s irresponsibility to other Citizens is, IMHO, insane.
I completely agree with you. tRUMP will be DIRECTLY responsible for any deaths of American citizens from COVID as a result of this gathering to feed his enormous ego.
I am unable to even find words that adequately express the depth of my anger and disgust about this.
I can’t imagine this event will be ignored or allowed to proceed without demonstration.
I agree!
I think the real elephant in the room is John Bolton - a man who purports himself a patriot, when in fact he sold out the country for a book deal. He knew exactly what he was doing when he offered to testify only under subpoena. Would he have made a real difference? Probably not, but I don't know how he sleeps at night.
Nor how he criticizes Trump’s brazen self-interest while being blind to his own.
The real problem there is that he probably has no problem at all with sleeping at night. Where does that put his "values" on the human register. Is he so different from the man he's criticizing?
Fun times finally. If the pile on continues, and the polls move even lower for the prez, I'm thinking he'll throw in the towel to avoid having to be known in history as a loser, losing the election. Fingers crossed. Toes, too.
And if he does you get 3 months of Pence! Is that going to be better? He'll have time to pardon Trump for federal crimes and destroy as much as possible of the evidence that could gut the whole Republican Party for a long time to come! In the meantime, Trump will have been squirrelled away on the golf course in some sunny clime without an extradition treaty.
Of course, all true. I just don't see Trump hanging in there while facing certain defeat. But yes, defeat and then prosecute would be preferable.
I have said all along that Trump would resign. It's his MO. Drive something into the ground, then declare victory and walk away, leaving others to clean up the mess.
All things being equal, I would agree. But they are not. I've been a New Yorker for a long time and I feel confident in saying that SDNY is biding it's time and will move on indictments as soon as all this political nonsense is out of the way. And their institutional memory rivals that of a butthurt woman. I think he knows that and he is pretty terrified of what happens when he is not shielded by the office. He doesn't want to be president, he's been over that for three years, but he's desperate for re election because he can't control what comes next. And that may well involve those loathsome kids. And that fueled up plane idling on the tarmac pointed towards Moscow ain't looking so fine either cause Vlad has been bored with this schmuck from the beginning, and we all know where boring Vlad gets you.
Your view is mine, although when I broach it with others they scoff. His egg-shell ego can't withstand the increasing pressure and crumbling support stemming from all the epic failures. His declining mental and physical health is the perfect excuse to bow out and avoid the crushing psychological blow of a landslide defeat in November.
He's created his own hell. While the republic will survive, he will not. Not in any meaningful way.
Hope springs eternal every time I hear you say this! Is it possible that if he resigns, leaving Pence in charge, that he could leave office with a full pardon?
But he has a big motivation not to do that—prosecution.
Mark Jespersen, it like he has a death wish with some of the things he does. You kind of wonder if he wants to lose.
Narcissists often get worse and worse as they are begging people to stop them, and they won't stop-- can't stop-- until someone does.
A narcissist with the power America once wielded is a terrifying thing indeed; my hope is that we can put in place guardrails against any true narcissist from rising this high again. The problem is the ruling class is by and large the narcissist class.
It seems to me that most politicians almost by definition have to have at least a streak of narcissism. Few people are so purely altruistic that they are willing to subject themselves and their families and loved ones to the often grueling scrutiny and attacks that running for office can entail. The trick, then, is to identify which have "healthy" levels of narcissism, balanced by a true desire to do the most good for the most people. That can be a potent combination. It's difficult enough for people with stable (almost hate to use that word anymore), balanced, healthy egos to maintain their moral footing in the face of the blatant flattery and fawning from those who are seeking favors, or to refrain from responding to the inevitable attacks with retaliation.
It would be wonderful if voters were interested in actually being well informed and attuned to the true character and mental stability of those running for office. However, as we have see, such is far too often not the case.
My hope Sylvia, is that the world has been taught a lesson by this heinous man about how to identify and reject narcissism in our public servants.
LOL! If his health gets any worse, or his weight, he could literally 'drop dead' at one of his rallies. Wouldn't that be a fun sight!?
Thanks for making it clear that while Bolton feels it’s necessary to criticize the House Democrats on their handling of impeachment, he did everything he could to impede their success. As much as I rub my hands with glee over the information Bolton is releasing, at bottom this book is self-serving and will probably have little effect on the 2020 election.
I agree that Bolton is no prize. But not sure about the effect on 2020, since China is shaping up to be a huge issue on that front. It's actually been weird to watch it start to appear and gain momentum as a key aspect of the election when it seems to me, anyway, that most Americans are really not thinking about China as the most burning issue in front of us.
Max Boot has an excellent op/ed piece about Bolton in today’s Washington Post.
I'm sorry, but these two absolutely deserve each other and if Bolton's dragging Trump down into a mud fight that makes them both look like what they are, I am good with that.
I agree, Betsy! The daily breech of ethics, the constant barrage of lies, the characterless bullying and name calling...we are so inundated with the offenses of this man that we ALMOST don’t realize what an insidious person he is and how complicit the Senate is in covering their eyes and plugging their noses!
Thank you for distilling the daily mind-boggling dump of information! My brain and sanity owe you a debit of gratitude.
Thanx for the heads-up confirming the corruption in this regime occupying the White House. (And the complicit “do nothing” Repugnant Senate). I hope the book withstands the illegal challenges and goes public. As for Bolton, he was part of the corruption so who cares if he has personal illegal grief from former toadies with whom he colluded.
I don't really see how they stop it at this point, when advance copies are already in the hands of media. It's just odd that they left it until this late. Even a week earlier and they could have stopped it from going out, but now? I just don't see it.
IS that a foul-up on their part, do you think, or an opportunity they took for another big media fracas to distract people from <gestures at everything>?
I thought the same thing. It's like in Star Wars when Leia says, "They LET US go. It's the only explanation for the ease of our escape." Trump has always maintained that there's no such thing as bad publicity, and there have been damning books come out before with no consequences to his approval rating.
Sometimes their overall ineptitude actually WORKS for America.
I'm with you, Heather. If a court stops it from going forward, SCOTUS would have to rely on New York Times Co. v. United States, in the Pentagon Papers case. As a former journalist, I can't see a stronger precedent than this. It would really turn the world upside down if SCOTUS overruled this precedent.
Totally different but is this true?
TODAY'S HISTORY LESSON: THE BLACK LAWN JOCKEY (footman).
These days people don't know the real meaning behind these statues, so they vandalize them, and think of them as racist, etc. The history of the black 'footman' with a lantern is the exact opposite. Its meaning signified that the home was a stop on the Underground Railroad. These were largely a northern thing, and weren't commonly found in the South until after WWII when northerners moved there and brought this custom with them. The clothing of the statue was also coded. A striped jockey's shirt meant that this was a place to swap horses, while a footman in a tailed coat meant overnight lodging and/or food, and a blue sailor's waist coat meant the homeowner could take you to a port and get you on a ship to Canada. Later, these came back into popularity after WWII, and they were again coded. Mostly to show that the white homeowners supported early civil rights efforts, and were NOT Klan members, etc. These statues are something we should be proud of because they led a lot of people to their freedom and they also represent the bravery and support of the homeowner's that risked their homes, themselves and their families for the struggle of freedom and equality.
Cool. Can you post a link to information about this so people can read more?
I've got a transcribed interview with some information (Lawn Jockey Legends - 2020 - Question for the Museum - Jim Crow Museum) https://www.ferris.edu/HTMLS/news/jimcrow/question/2020/april.htm
Wow--I had no idea of this was the history of the lawn jockey! They were common enough when I was growing up but I was taught that they are a racist trope. A very dear--and tragically recently departed--former colleague and friend Pellom McDaniels, who was an historian of African American culture, wrote a book that got published a few years ago on the most famous jockey of the 19th century: The Prince of Jockeys: The Life of Isaac Burns Murphy. His fame was such that I assumed after hearing about Pellom's research over the years that he was the model for the lawn jockey.
Mary Trump's damning book is next. According to the Daily Beast, Trump is gearing up for a legal fight, getting his attorneys involved and telling people close to him that Mary Trump had signed a non-disclosure agreement years ago. That could buy him time before the election, if if it's a legal battle he can't wint. Given the extent to which NDAs are legal documents and enforceable should make them a relevant "thing to know," document and have a thorough accounting of, about any candidate running for POTUS in the future, and as part of national clearance for WH administration.
This will be interesting because she is a private citizen and he represents the government... precisely the situation the First Amendment was designed to address. But I doubt she will say much we don't already know. Bolton's book was key because of his stature in the administration and his detailed contemporaneous notes.
i suspect she will have some embarrassing personal stuff but little he can call classified.
It's terrible how one gets so "blazé" about sensational revelations about Trump. Overkill no...but it would be so good to see something done about it. The real problem here is McConnell and his troop of "baby elephants" who are so scared, or reliant upon, their rogue bull that they are frozen solid. Fortunately their are cracks appearing in the iceberg. Isn't time that the Republican Party took its future in its own hands and spilt into 2 seperate parties? Right and extreme rightwing? If they did could the democrats follow?
blasé
Too true! Many thanks. I'm caught in a linguistic triangle betwee English, American and French and should have checked.
Ha! I get that completely.
What??!! Trump was happy to sell out a million Uighurs for his own personal gain - agreeing that sending them to prison camps was a right and proper action in exchange for some agricultural products. A million people. Let's think about that. And Bolton (and presumably others) did nothing. Let's think about that too.
I had to cut a graf I wrote about this last night. I think it shows a mind that does not believe that all people are equal, or that all people have value. And isn't the concentration of people deemed "lesser" precisely what his administration did on our southern border? It was certainly possible to change our immigration policies without that particular solution, but that's the way they went.
It comes back to Senator James Henry Hammonds defining speach for the Democrats in 1858 which you summarize in "To make men free"
Certainly trump would casually sell out a million people for his personal gain - after all, for months, he has been selling out the entire 330 million Americans to the coronavirus for the sake of his reelection. With the Uighurs, though, it is worse than that. Given trump's repeated attacks on Muslims, there is reason to believe he actually likes the idea of locking them all up.
I thought I'd lost my ability to be shocked by Trump and his enablers, but I was wrong. This truly shocked me. But you are right. Of course he did that. I'm crying for our country and our global community.
I am worn down by Trump Inc's corruption and GOP's absolute cave-in to Trump and everything he represents. That's what's so shocking to me!
Many of us are of the same low opinion of Bolton. He had his chance to do something and he was a coward. But add to this the true patriots such as Lt. Colonel Vindman, Dr. Fiona Hill and Marie Yovanovitch who risked their careers and their lives (death threats have been made) and the true depth of Bolton’s cowardice shows through.
Yes, Annette! Vindman, Hill and Yovnovitch are inspiring human beings! I hope we have not seen the last of them - the country is a better place for their service.
P.S. I hate that I can't go back in to edit my comment below, the way I can on FaceBook.
I will take this up with IT.
Please do!
Bolton seems to be more like Trump than he will admit: he wants this to be about himself, or he would have done his patriotic duty and testified before a deliberative body who wanted to DO something about Trump. He was clearly upset about what Trump has done, but apparently Bolton doesn't view that as treason. He wants to be President himself, perhaps.
I believe there's a possibility, just a chance, that Bolton's book could help his re-election. His quid-pro-quo with President Xi -- the "Art of the Deal" -- can be spun to show his base, especially farmers, that he was negotiating for them!
I wondered the same. But I'm guessing that they are so underwater, it's too late for this to change many minds. And then you add in Covid... which is hitting so hard right now in red states....